The best three words in the English language just might be "I don't know."

12 posts categorized "Astrology"

New Moon in Taurus this past Friday: a challenge to all of us, individually and collectively, to take a stand for ourselves and our planet. What do we value? What do we want? What supports us and feels right for us ... with the emphasis on "feels"? There is a way through, and it doesn't have much to do with intellectualizing about what's going on or trying to "figure things out" mentally.

It's time now for us to perceive and consider things at a different level of our human abilities -- sensing deeply and awarely with our physical bodies, and being open to receiving the invaluable input of our emotions and intuition. In our interactions with each other and the world around us, we've been functioning pretty much as though we're just disembodied heads. In the process, we've lost touch with something vital, including our power to discern what is real and what isn't; and that's led to our present loss of control over our lives, our inability to make reality-based, effective and thoughtful decisions and choices, or even to interact meaningfully with each other. (If you want a clear demonstration of that, you need look no further than the Internet and the mass media.)

As the biblical saying goes, May those who have eyes, see; and those who have ears, hear.

We need to get our eyes and our ears back in proper working order, and that's only done by actually doing it, using all of our abilities, not simply by thinking about it or watching a movie about someone doing it, or by chatting about it on an online forum. (Those activities can have a role to play, but they're not all there is, or even the most important part.)

A random chapter of the Tao Te Ching for this tumultuous and adventurous time ...

53

The great Way is easy,yet people prefer the side paths.Be aware when things are out of balance.Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosperwhile farmers lose their land;when government officials spend moneyon weapons instead of cures;when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsiblewhile the poor have nowhere to turn-all this is robbery and chaos.It is not in keeping with the Tao.

The PlanetWaves February "Eriscope" for Pisces, written by Eric Francis:

This is one of the most visionary times of your life -- or perhaps one when you've never felt more trapped inside of a vision that you cannot manifest. I can say this: you're a lot further along in your process than you imagine. If you're developing an idea for how you want your life to be (and I do mean your most passionate erotic and creative life), then keep your focus inwardly. You have yet to discover the tipping point where what you align with in your internal world expresses itself as a tangible development in your outer life. This really is a matter of connecting deeply with the truth of who you are, which is often the first thing that we deny or evade. Let yourself be drawn to the strange, the unruly and mostly to the unknown. Gradually enter the space of the unspeakable. Make eye contact with others as you do this. Look for the people whose eyes seem to be questioning you back.

One of the most fundamental things I've noticed about my life, from a very early age, is that what's inside me often doesn't translate to the outside. There is a dissonance between the reality and the appearance. This has resulted in much frustration for me. I've found myself living a somewhat marginalized existence, meaning that I am experienced by others as something other than what I am, and I have been reluctant to push the issue, mainly because I can feel their need for me not to do so. It has contributed to numerous relationship miscues because I'm not necessarily who or what people expect me to be, as well as to a sense of isolation.

This is not a physical isolation, since I'm engaged in the world, but is at the level of wanting deep connection and not getting it. Hmmm ... this is a bit difficult to put into words. The deep connection I have with the world does exist. Being an empath, I have always known that connection, as a matter of personal experience. The problem is that it has not been reflected back to me, not acknowledged by the world, and in fact is often denied or actively resisted.

There's that dissonance again that I spoke of, which borders on paradox ... I feel so connected and so isolated, at one and the same time. It's as if I know about a beautiful dance that we are all participating in, and that I want to experience openly with everyone... but we're not dancing. Or more accurately, people are dancing while at the same time insisting there is no dance going on.

I've thought it was just me who had that problem, but on reflection, I suspect it's pretty common ... perhaps even part and parcel of the "normal" human condition (at least as we've known it up to now.) Maybe I'm just more aware of it, or less able to go along and contentedly play the game everyone else in the world seems to be playing ... or something. People often remark on how "independent" I am. That's true, but there's more to it.

There's got to be a reason for the abundance of New Age "affirmation-visualization-create your life the way you want it" seminars and books, and I think this has a lot to do with it. People are reaching for something beyond what has been presented to them as the normal way to live, while they feel unsatisfied or even thwarted in living fully. Another culturally-typical way of handling (or denying) those feelings is through our addictive behavior ... alcohol, drugs, food, smoking, shopping ... anything to avoid getting out of the illusion and facing reality. That includes the reality of our deep needs and desires, the deep truth of who and what we are, individually and collectively.

Our culture teaches us that wanting to live happily and creatively is an option, not a necessity, and that it's even self-centered or frivolous. But I think it is essential for our basic integrity. "Integrity" means more than simple honesty. Think of the structural integrity of a building, which makes the building whole and sound, and fit for human habitation. Integrity is not a luxury, at least not any more. The survival of the human species depends on it now.

(By the way, for those of you who know I'm a Sagittarian and are wondering why I'm posting a reading for Pisces: in using astrology most effectively, it's important to consider your rising sign as well as your Sun sign. In some ways, a reading for your Ascendant (rising sign) can be more accurate than one for your Sun sign, because it takes into account your time of birth.)

In my previous blog entry, I quoted the song that unfolds stanza-by-stanza in Tom Robbins' novel Villa Incognito. A reviewer of that book described it as a "Zen koan". I can't argue with that. In fact, I'd go further and call it a defining koan for our time, or at least the current bit of it.

Today, Eric Francis at PlanetWaves published a commentary on the final days of the Bush-Cheney administration, in which he discussed the imminent invasion of the Palestinian Gaza Strip by the Israelis, as well as Americans' response to the situation.

In viewing politics from the outside, it’s easy to think that you’re seeing the whole thing. More accurately, it’s like watching a movie for two hours, having missed the years of scripting, casting, production, editing and marketing that has led up to it. It’s easy to get caught in the emotion and the apparent level of “right and wrong.” Basically, we get caught in the movie and not the movie business.

Personally, until I figured out what was happening, I kept getting caught in the idea that Israel has the right to defend itself, and that Hamas is suicidal. The emotional, right-and-might vision of the world is like being lost somewhere and not looking at a map.

What he's describing here doesn't just apply to global politics. It is generally the way those of us in Western culture approach things nowadays ... flitting across the surface, taking what people say and do at face value, applying our logic to that erroneous view of things, reacting emotionally to what we think we see, and then acting on that basis.

I've got this clear image in my mind of what that's like ... it's as if a big hand comes down out of the sky, holding a big stick, and stirs an enormous pot of stew, until everything gets all mixed up and messy. Imagine that we're all in that stew pot together. When the stirring commences, we all start freaking out, screeching and hollering, throwing things and arguing and stomping all over each other.

No one stops to notice the big stick stirring things up, much less the hand holding it. We're too busy reacting to what's going on in the stew, and thinking that's "it". To switch metaphors, we believe the sleight of hand. We really believe the magician has cut his assistant in half. We saw it with our own two eyes, didn't we? And he said he did it. Why would he lie?

I'm including myself in this. Despite my years of training as a lawyer and working in the "real" world of corporate business, I've still got this tendency -- even a need -- to take things as they are presented. I want to trust people, to believe what they say, to discuss things with them on that level, and to believe that we can have real, meaningful, honest interaction.

At the same time, I have always been aware of the undercurrents in any given situation, the things that are unspoken, the energetic dissonance between what is presented as being true and what is actually going on. The end result has been to put myself in a Catch-22, a kind of self-inflicted crazy-making and a collusion with the crazy-making by others, full of denial, manipulation, projection, self-righteous finger-pointing, and ... well, there's that sleight of hand again, that teaches us to believe what is not true and disbelieve what is, and that makes everybody else in the world wrong while we, of course, are right.

This is a loss of integrity -- individually and collectively -- that is deeply pathological.

The good news is that, if it's a disease, the patient (that's us) has gone about as far it can go in the direction of ill-health. Either it gets well or it dies. We've begun to make the shift, and are in what the medical community might call a healing crisis. Not a bad place to be, although not the most comfortable. Which may be the point. If it were more comfortable, we might be tempted to ignore the situation and slide back into denial. There's nothing like being on the edge to keep you moving.

The further good news, as any good astrologer or metaphysician can tell you, is that it's time. The doorways and paths are popping up one after the other -- the New Moons, the Full Moons, the magnificent Solstice that's just passed, Pluto entering Capricorn, Neptune squares and Uranus oppositions -- we're on this cosmic conveyor belt, and all we need to do is keep our eyes open and have the intention of moving along with it. It's there if you want it.

There was a lovely quarter moon Tuesday evening as I was driving home from the office. As on so many other occasions over the past couple of years, it's a wonder I made it home in one piece, between keeping one eye on the winding mountain road and the other on the scenery.

I noticed a bright star just to the west of the moon,and figured it was the planet Jupiter, which is currently transitting Capricorn (in the Tropical zodiac.) You can't see it in this photograph, because by the time I stopped to take some pics the clouds had rolled in.

Waxing Quarter Moon in Capricorn, rising over the cliffs on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, October 7, 2008

If I had to create a poem to describe these final days of Pluto in Sagittarius; with Chiron, Neptune and the lunar North Node conjunct in the middle of Aquarius; Uranus and Saturn at opposition; and the personal planets all cozied up in Libra, including Mercury getting ready to do its fall retrograde, this would be it.

You'll probaby think I'm nuts, but I find reading this poem a joyful experience. It has been such a long road (and as another early 20th century poet said, we have miles to go before we sleep), and in this poem I find some sort of validation and comfort.

P. S. If you don't understand the "astrologese", don't worry about it ... just read the poem ;). There'll be time enough to talk about the cosmos later.

Well, this past Tuesday I went to the veterinarian's office to get some flea medicine for my girls, and came home with a cat carrier with a kitten in it. Now how'd that happen?

Lakshmi celebrates her 11th birthday on October 1st; Willow was born at approximately 6:45 PM, Friday, April 7, 2000 (I was there, acting as midwife); and her mama Tink was born sometime in late summer or early fall 1999. We've been quite happy together, the four of us. For some reason, though, a couple of times in the past few weeks I found myself thinking, "what if we had a new baby kitten?" But I didn't actively go out and look for one. It was just a passing thought.

So as I was paying for the flea medicine on Tuesday, the vet's receptionist asked, "You wouldn't know anyone who wants a new kitten, would you?"

Oh, isn't that the way it always happens? During the past eight years, whenever someone would say something like that, I'd automatically say, "No." But this time, I didn't. I figured that was a clue. (Of course, I'm also having my astrological Mars return, so maybe it's time for me to have some male energy in my home.)

He is around four months old, with medium-length fur that's colored a light apricot-spice-cream, a lovely fluffy tail, and golden-green eyes. He has the sweetest disposition, loves to be held, and lets me handle him as if we've been together forever. He seems to have no fear.

The girls have been doing well with him, too. There's been some sulking and spitting, and they're letting him know the boundaries, but Tink already seems comfortable with him, and the others are coming along. I've told them that it's their house and he has to find his way to fit in ... and it's their job to teach him how things operate here.

Oh ... since he was a stray, he didn't come with a name, but he told me he is "Malcolm". Nicknamed "Bubba". ;)

I'll have some pics of him up soon. My first Northwest cat. (The others are all Bay St. Louis babies.)

Full Moonrise over the Cascade Mountains in the Columbia River Gorge, reflected in the waters of Rock Cove - September 14, 2008

The Moon is full overnight tonight, at 2:13 AM September 15 here on the West Coast of the United States.

I am sitting in my living room, typing this blog entry on the laptop I bought almost three years ago, right after Hurricane Katrina. Another Gulf Coast hurricane, Ike, has come and gone this weekend, capping a summer of dreams and drama, sorrow and gratitude; of getting clear, coming home, and letting things settle out.

The window is open to let in the cool night air, and I can hear the chirp of frogs in the garden and the occasional car passing on the two-lane scenic highway in the distance. Earlier today, I heard the first geese of the season honking as they landed on the lake. The plums in my front yard are ripening, almost translucent deep purple. A plum tree branch overhangs the steep driveway to my house, and if I take the turn just right, it hits the windshield with a big "thump" and plums go cascading down to the street.

It feels peaceful now. An active, full, rather tired, and waiting kind of peaceful. Maybe the best sort of peaceful there is, where we don't know what is going to happen, whether it's going to be "good" or "bad" -- probably some of both; and how on Earth could we judge? Or when or how or who; and we know we don't have any control over it. And it's all OK, and going to be OK, no matter what.

It's an interesting thing to commit to writing a blog and have words fail you. But such are the times we're living in.

Full "Lightning" Moon today at 2:18 PM PDT, across the Leo-Aquarius axis. It's holding hands with Neptune, which in the sign of Aquarius denotes our collective madness, as well as the way through.

This is a time of karmic disentanglement, deep transformation, blasting our old patterns and way of life to smithereens. Letting go of one "reality" so that another can unfold. Here we are, in the place in between. The Tibetan Buddhists have a word for this: Bardo.

Things are reaching their ultimate polarity, where polarization (duality) transforms into paradox, the gateway to sacred ground.

Last night, in the midst of this glorious, heartbreaking and life-changing season of eclipses, I dreamed I had revived my blog.

So this evening, as the third quarter Moon in Sagittarius conjoined my Sun and crossed the Galactic Center, meeting up with Pluto before heading into Capricorn, I totally redesigned this blog. You'll notice the new banner I created, using a photo I took in the area where I live ... at the time of another Full Moon, about a year ago.

We shall see where this takes me. And to those whose lives have touched mine since I last posted an entry here a year and a half ago:

I am sorry. I forgive you. I love you.

Namaste.

Note: If you're wondering where the special banner photo went to, it's all explained in this post.

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?" ... A vulture boards a plane carrying two dead possums. The flight attendant stops her and says, "I'm sorry, ma'am, there's only one carrion allowed per passenger." APRIL FOOL! The preceding passage wasn't your real horoscope, but rather a Zen koan designed to scramble your brain so that you'd be receptive to your real horoscope, which goes as follows: Two Eskimos were sitting in a kayak. They were cold, so they lit a fire right there. The boat sank, proving that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

I just realized that yesterday (June 11) was the sixth-month anniversary of my arrival in Portland. Things didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned ... I thought I would take a month or so to "rest", then get busy creating my new life here. In actuality, the process has taken a lot longer than that, as I've blogged about here. The good news is, I've learned pretty solidly how to trust and allow the process of my life to unfold. And it is unfolding in some pretty amazing ways, that have a much greater depth and excitement to them than I could ever have planned.

Yesterday was also the day of the Gemini-Sagittarius Full Moon. In Native American traditions, this particular full moon is known as the "Strawberry Moon", because the short harvest season of the strawberry crops takes place during June. There is a wonderful spot near my house that has a great view of Mt. Hood, where I have been wanting for months to take a photo of the full moon rising over the mountains. I went out at 9:45 tonight to do so -- at these high latitudes, that's when the sun goes down, nearing the solstice -- but the sky was overcast. Although there was a nice sunset going on in the west, the moonrise was not visible in the east. That's for another time, I guess.

On my way home, I stopped at a local establishment that has great fresh strawberry milkshakes, made from local Oregon strawberries -- one thing Oregon has in common with Louisiana, although in the South, the strawberries ripen in April. However, they were out of strawberries (people celebrating the full moon, perhaps?), so I had to "settle" for a mocha milkshake.

In the Buddhist calendar, the June full moon (the first full moon after Wesak, which celebrates the enlightenment of the Buddha Gautama) coincides with the Festival of Goodwill.

Optimism in the face of a host of conflicting and confusingly problematic scenarios isn't exactly the point...but maintaining a simple, quiet calm IS. The issue isn't optimism vs. pessimism. It's much more about finding the center.

When I'm in the center, I don't need to plan or figure out. Things I've known for a long time are becoming crystal clear at deep levels of my being.